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From 1980 to 1988, Iran and Iraq fought the longest conventional war of the twentieth century. The tragedies included the slaughter of child soldiers, the use of chemical weapons, the striking of civilian shipping in the Gulf, and the destruction of cities. The Iran-Iraq War offers an unflinching look at a conflict seared into the region’s collective memory but little understood in the West. Pierre Razoux shows why this war remains central to understanding Middle Eastern geopolitics, from the deep-rooted distrust between Sunni and Shia Muslims, to Iran’s obsession with nuclear power, to the continuing struggles in Iraq. He provides invaluable keys to decipher Iran’s behavior and intern...
A comprehensive account of the Iran-Iraq War through the lens of the Iraqi regime and its senior military commanders.
The Iran-Iraq War is one of the largest, yet least documented conflicts in the history of the Middle East. Drawing from an extensive cache of captured Iraqi government records, this book is the first comprehensive military and strategic account of the war through the lens of the Iraqi regime and its senior military commanders. It explores the rationale and decision-making processes that drove the Iraqis as they grappled with challenges that, at times, threatened their existence. Beginning with the bizarre lack of planning by the Iraqis in their invasion of Iran, the authors reveal Saddam's desperate attempts to improve the competence of an officer corps that he had purged to safeguard its loyalty to his tyranny, and then to weather the storm of suicidal attacks by Iranian religious revolutionaries. This is a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the history of war and the contemporary Middle East.
Examines Saudi and Syrian policies during three pivotal wars, to understand how identity and power influence state behaviour in the Middle East.
This volume offers a wide-ranging examination of the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88), featuring fresh regional and international perspectives derived from recently available new archival material. Three decades ago Iran and Iraq became embroiled in a devastating eight-year war which served to re-define the international relations of the Gulf region. The Iran–Iraq War stands as an anomaly in the Cold War era; it was the only significant conflict in which the interests of the United States and Soviet Union unwittingly aligned, with both superpowers ultimately supporting the Iraqi regime. The Iran–Iraq War re-assesses not only the superpower role in the conflict but also the war’s regional an...
"This book focuses on the role of the air power in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. The authors made full use of extensive research, eyewitness accounts, interviews with dozens of people directly involved, as well as recently declassified documents from around the world which are published here for the first time. ... describes and analyzes both the development of the Iranian and the Iraqi air forces, their involvement in combat operations, while simultaneously discussing their organization and capabilities, and detailing their equipment to detail."--Edited from publisher's web site.
Driven by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the insecurities it provoked in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship, the Iran–Iraq War would become the largest conventional conflict of the period. Curiously little-known considering its scale and longevity, the struggle between Iran and Iraq was primarily fought along the 1,458km border in a series of battles which, despite both sides being armed with modern small arms, armour and aircraft, often degenerated into attritional struggles reminiscent of World War I. Such a comparison was underlined by frequent periods of deadlock, the extensive use of trenches by both sides, and the deployment of chemical weapons by Iraq. Fully illustrated with sp...
The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) is a cornerstone of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s existence. It entrenched the newly established regime and provided the means for its consolidation of power in the country following the 1979 Revolution. Officially recognized as the "War of Sacred Defense", the Iranian government has been careful to control public discourse and cultural representation concerning the war since the since wartime. Nearly 30 years since the war’s end, however, debates around the war and its aftermath are still very much alive in Iran today. This volume uncovers what some of those debates mean, nearly 30 years since the war's end. The chapters in this volume take a fresh look at the far-reaching legacies of the Iran-Iraq War in Iran today – a war that dominated the first decade of the Islamic Republic’s existence. The chapters examine the political, social and cultural ramifications of the war and the wide range of debates that surround it. The chapters in this book were originally published in Middle East Critique.
The dramatic story of the brutal eight-year war between these rival powers in the 1980s, with numerous photos included. The bloody eight-year Iran-Iraq war is now almost forgotten, overshadowed by the subsequent Gulf War and Iraq War. It is best remembered for the unique so-called Tanker War, which threatened to strangle the world’s oil supplies. At the time, defense analyst Anthony Tucker-Jones wrote extensively on the war and now brings his expertise to bear with this account of a conflict fueled by festering regional rivalries, the Cold War, and the emerging threat posed by militant Shia Islam. Fought on land, at sea, and in the air using some of the most modern weapons money could buy,...
A comprehensive but concise overview of Iran's politics, economy, military, foreign policy, and nuclear program. The volume chronicles U.S.-Iran relations under six American presidents and probes five options for dealing with Iran. Organized thematically, this book provides top-level briefings by 50 top experts on Iran (both Iranian and Western authors) and is a practical and accessible "go-to" resource for practitioners, policymakers, academics, and students, as well as a fascinating wealth of information for anyone interested in understanding Iran's pivotal role in world politics.